Following a representation given by people's representatives from Visakhapatnam district, Chief Minister K Rosaiah on Monday postponed the proposed public auction of 700 acres of land in 5 villages belonging to the Simhachalam Devasthanam on October 4th and 6th to October 13th.
According to sources, the villagers from the 5 villages are vehemently opposed to the proposed auction. They had protested and attacked Simhachalam Devasthanam Executive Officer C Prem Kumar on Saturday to show their opposition to the proposed public auctioning of the temple land.
According to Devasthanam sources, out of the 11,282.26 acres of temple land gifted by the Vizianagaram Maharaja as per the 1903 survey records, a large extent has been sold to several people by those living there. These sales of the temple land have also been registered.
"We currently own 9,200 acres for which pattas were given in 1997 by Revenue officials after a survey. 427 acres have been occupied, and buildings have come up, for which the Building Regularisation Scheme is continuing; but some pieces of agriculture land have been sold by real estate dealers, which we wish to take possession of," Prem Kumar explained.
Courts have stayed the auction of 40 acres in response to the petitions filed by tillers.
Earlier, a delegation of the residents of the 5 villages had met Endowments Minister Gade Venkata Reddy, seeking his intervention, but he had refused to stop the auctions.
Courtesy: INN
filed in:Land Grabbing, Land Regularisation, Temples, Simhachalam